Happy Thanksgiving

 

We had a great Thanksgiving break, but I did not do a great job of taking pictures.  The fun started on Wednesday when we got together for my nephew Rykker's birthday at Pojo's.  The kids had a blast and keep asking when they can go back.  That evening we then met up with Craig's side of the family for Pie Night at his parents.  This has become a fun tradition and another great excuse to eat more pie!

Thursday morning after I taught spin we got the green bean casserole, sweet potato casserole and deviled eggs all ready before heading to my sister Tiffany's for the Thanksgiving feast.  Of course everything was delicious and we ate until we were beyond full.  After cleaning up we headed a few miles over to my sister Melissa's house for pie.  I brought banana cream and key lime, oh how I love pie, but my niece Ivy might love it even more than me.  After the kids and I got our fill of pie we then stopped by Craig's parents house to say hello for a little bit.

We finished off our Thanksgiving break with a BSU basketball game.  We lost, but it was still fun to get the kids to the game, even if I spent about a quarter of it in the food line buying the popcorn that Craig had promised McKay.  We will definitely try to get back to another game.  I always love Thanksgiving time.  Spending time with family, eating great food, and taking extra time to remember the things that we are grateful for.  It doesn't get much better than that.

Halloween

 

Halloween festivities started off with a trip to the pumpkin patch with McKay's preschool on October 8th.  We had a blast at the Farmstead on the hay ride and picking out our pumpkins and also playing around on all the fun attractions they had.  We even lucked out and left about 2 minutes before the rain hit. 

We then had a little Halloween party with the cousins on my side of the family at my Mom's house on October 22nd.  The kids painted pumpkins and little fall wood decorations.  They also decorated cupcakes and ate way too much candy.  We then ate chili and sang happy birthday to their cousin Ivy.

McKay also had the chance to go to a friends birthday party that was a costume party and he got to decorate yet another pumpkin.  The kids also got to go pick a ton of pumpkins from our Bishops garden, so our front porch was loaded.

Since Halloween was on a Sunday this year we decided to go to my Mom's ward Trunk-or-Treat on Saturday the 30th.  The kids dressed up yet again in their Fire fighter and witch costumes and after their cousin's Brinley's birthday party we headed over to the church parking lot.  My Mom's ward went all out and the kids made a great haul.  Trunk-or-Treat's are really the way to go, definitely the most efficient way to get their candy.  They both filled their bags in about 15 minutes.

We then finished off our Halloween festivities with the annual Moss Halloween Party.  We missed not being able to do it at Brian and Brooke's, but luckily Diane offered to host so we had it at their place.  We ate soup and rolls and played a few games and of course had a piñata.  The kids had a blast and got to dress up in their costumes a record 4 times, we definitely got our moneys worth this year.

Coeur d'Alene

 

The annual Idaho Optometric meeting was held in Coeur d'Alene again this year and so Craig and I decided to make it into a quick weekend get away.  Craig headed up the evening of Wednesday October 13th, since he had meetings starting Thursday morning.  I then joined him Thursday night after dropping the kids off at soccer and having Craig's parents handle pick up.  We are so lucky to have family close that are willing to help watch our kids.  We had a great room at the Coeur d'Alene Resort that had an amazing view of the lake and a great little fire place.  Friday morning while Craig had meetings I went to the gym and then headed off to the spa for a massage, which was AMAZING.  I then met him for lunch and then we were off to go check out Lake Pend Oreille.  It was about an hour drive to Sand Point where we walked around the cute town and checked out the lake.  It was a little rainy but still beautiful.

That evening after we got back to the hotel we met up with some friends for dinner at the Floating Restaurant, which Craig had already been to the night before with all the Vision One employees who were at the conference, but I wanted to go so here he was again.  It is a fun restaurant that floats on the lake and the food is delicious.  We even got our dinner paid for by another optometrist that happened to be at the same place.  It was a little weird, but I am not one to pass up a free meal.  

Saturday we had planned to go hike to Priest Lake, but hadn't realized how far of a drive it was, so we bagged that idea and decided to sleep in instead, which means about 7:30.  We went to the gym and then grabbed some breakfast at the hotel.  We then walked around the docks and the park by the hotel.  After a quick nap while Craig watched football, we then headed to a movie and dinner and then ice cream, well I had ice cream, Craig just watched.  Back to the hotel to watch the BSU game before heading to bed.  Sunday morning we woke up and packed up and then were off to the airport to return our rental car and head home to our kiddos.  It was quick, but so nice.  It is always good to get away for a few days, but I always love coming back to the kiddos even more.

 

Mt. Borah

 

Hiking Mt. Borah has been on our bucket list for the last few years and we finally got it done in September.  Mt. Borah is the highest peak in Idaho with the summit at 12,662 ft.  The hike is about 9 miles round trip and you gain about 5,400 feet in elevation in the 4.5 miles to the top.  We did a lot of hiking this summer to make sure that we were prepared.  We dropped our kids off at my Mom's on Sunday Sept. 12th and headed towards Arco and Challis.  The plan was to stop in Arco to grab dinner before heading the last little bit to the camp ground at the base of the mountain.  Craig called the restaurant to make sure that it would be open that evening and was told it would be, but when we pulled up lo and behold it was closed and nothing else in the town was open.  So our dinner that night came straight from the gas station, what a great prep meal.  After eating in the car we headed to the base of the mountain and got the car ready for us to sleep in.  Craig's Dad let us borrow his Yukon so we could just lay the back down and in the car, rather than having to set up a tent and take it back down in the morning.  So we blew up our air mattresses and rolled out the sleeping bags and got as much sleep as we could.  Since we were hiking late in the season and on a Monday it wasn't very busy, so we were able to "sleep in" a little bit and not start our hike until about 7:30am.  It was a little chilly when we first started so we layered up but quickly got hot as we started our steep climb.  The first 2 miles were very steep switch backs that were covered in gravel.  We then hit a plateau with a little bit more of a gradual ascent until we hit Chicken Out Ridge.  We had heard a lot about chicken out ridge and weren't too nervous about it.  You definitely needed to be cautious and needed to use your hands, but there were a lot of pockets to put your hands in as you climbed along this "spine".  There were major drop offs on both sides and if you are scared of heights it would make it a lot more difficult, but we felt safe the whole time.  After chicken out ridge we came to a saddle before climbing down a 20 foot drop off with a rope that someone else had attached.  By this point we were ready to summit.  It seemed so close but yet so far away.  The last 1000ft or so to the summit took us about an hour and because we couldn't see the trail we ended up bouldering all the way to the top.  While we were doing this I was getting nervous about having to come back down, but luckily once we got to the top we saw the trail and were able to follow that back down.  By the time we got to this last little bit we were getting pretty tired and could definitely feel the affects of the altitude.  We had to stop about every few minutes to catch our breathe real quick.  We finally made it to the top after about 4 hours.  It was so beautiful at the top, but because of all of the smoke from wildfires we couldn't see as far as we had hoped, but the view was truly magical.  The mountains and peaks were so majestic. We hung out at the summit for about 20 minutes to rest and eat and hydrate and to document our arrival.  When you get to the top there is a box up there that has a notebook so you can sign your name and put the date.  Just the Saturday before there had been a lot of people up the mountain, but lucky for us we pretty much had the mountain to ourselves.   Since we were able to see the trail on our way back down it made a much quicker descent. We took a couple of quick breaks on our way back down, included a 20 minute break chatting with the one guy we saw on the trail.  We ended up making it back down in 2 1/2 hours.  We were really hauling.  Round trip took us just under 7 hours.  Once we got back down to the bottom we quickly loaded back up and drove back home.  We both woke up the next morning pretty sore.  It was tough going up and down stairs for a few days, but by Wednesday afternoon we were feeling pretty good.  It was quite an adventure and we are so glad that we finally got it done.  I don't know if either of us care to do it again, but it is pretty cool to say that we've done it.  Now to figure out what our next big adventure will be.